


old scars

by gentlefist



Category: Naruto
Genre: F/M, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-08
Updated: 2017-05-08
Packaged: 2018-10-29 09:29:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,444
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10851168
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gentlefist/pseuds/gentlefist
Summary: Boruto likes to think that his mom is invincible. He finds out otherwise.





	old scars

**Author's Note:**

> this is my first time writing anything in forever,,, i just wanted to do a quick character study on hinata and also GOD PLEASE GIVE ME MORE INTERACTION OF HINATA AND HER KIDS......

“Think fast, Mom!” Boruto exclaimed, landing a solid kick to his mother’s back. As soon as he connected, the woman suddenly gasped for air. “Mom?!”

“ _Naruto_!” She whispered, softly. His mother crumpled to her knees, as if all the muscles in her body had suddenly stopped working.

“M-Mom?” His eyes were wide with worry, as he quickly knelt, wrapping an arm around his mother. “Mom? Are you o-”

“I’m sorry!” His mother whimpered, her voice wracked with desperate attempts to breathe. “I’m so sorry! Naruto… I’m so…” Her hands formed weak fists as she pounded at the ground. “I’m so sorry…”

Himawari came rushing out at the sound of her mother’s fall. “Mommy? Are you okay? Mommy?!”

Their mother came out of her anguished stupor slowly but surely. Her eyes were wide, filled with tears. “I… Boruto, I… I’m okay. H-Himawari, baby, I’m okay. I’m s-sorry for scaring you.”

“What happened, Mom?! Did I hurt you? W-What were you sorry for?!” Boruto’s hands found his mother’s, and Himawari started to cry.

“Where you kicked me… I-It made me remember something bad that happened to me, a l-long, long time ago. You don’t need to worry about it, my sweetheart. You didn’t mean to do anything. We were just sparring.”

She pulled both of her children in for a hug. She smelled like home, like she always did. Something was wrong, though. He knew that sometimes his mother stuttered when she was upset, or when she had trouble conveying something. This seemed different.

That night, Boruto waited up for his father. He didn’t usually. It was always too late in the night to bother - he’d go to school sleepless if he did. This time, though...

As soon as Boruto heard the front door click open, he scampered down the steps as quietly as he could. “Old Man…”

“Boruto?!” His father whispered. “What in the hell are you doing awake at this hour?!”

Boruto inhaled deeply. “Something happened today. Something with Mom.”

The Seventh Hokage’s face flickered with worry. “Sit down on the couch, Boruto. I’ll be there in a moment.”

His father brought tea when he came to sit in the recliner opposite him.

“She collapsed today.”

Naruto looked up from where he was carefully pouring chamomile into a mug. “What do you mean?” He handed said mug to his son, and said son stared down into the steaming liquid.

“We were sparring, and I - I don’t know what happened, but I kicked her, and suddenly she was on the ground. Mom’s a super-strong Kunoichi, and she always kicks my ass, so I was already worried, b-but then she started crying, and pounding the ground… It was really scary… She looked like she got shot.”

When Boruto looked up at his father, he was surprised to see a look of knowing on his face.

“Boruto, where’d you kick her?”

He blinked. “The middle of her back…”

“Ah,” said the Seventh, “Yeah. That happens sometimes.” His face looked calm.

Boruto was immediately alive with fury. “What the fuck do you mean, that happens sometimes? My Mom is the strongest Kunoichi ever, and there’s no way she’d lose to me… She was calling out for you when I kicked her!” A sudden realization dawned upon him, and suddenly, he was reaching for his utility pocket. “Did you hurt my mom, you bastard?”

His dad looked down. “Not in that way. You’ve learned about the battle with a guy named Pein, right? In school?”

Boruto turned away. “Yeah… You found the real one and kicked his ass.”

The old man’s lips twitched into a smile. “Not quite, kiddo. It was Pein himself who saved the village, not me. But have you learned about the Pein called the God’s Realm?”

“I learned about the different realms, yeah… And you defeated that one with the power of the Kyuubi, right?”

“Uh…” His dad rubbed the back of his neck, embarrassed. “Not even close. Me and the Kyuubi weren’t always friends, you know. And back when we were enemies, he would give anything to take over. Sometimes his chakra would slip out when I got hurt, or sad, or angry. It was really scary; I would act like a wild animal, and the more he took over, the closer I got to dying.”

“Dying?” To be quite honest, Boruto had never really thought about his father dying before.

“Yeah, kiddo. Your ol’ man’s not immortal, ya know? But anyways, have you read about the closest I ever got to being taken over?”

Boruto closed his eyes, trying to remember. “It was… During that fight, right?”

“Yeah. And you wanna know why I lost control?”

“Why?”

“Because of your mom.”

Boruto’s eyes widened.

“I was sixteen, then. Just a little bit older than you. Your mother had a crush on me ever since grade school; I was oblivious, and didn’t notice one bit. Her affections grew into something even bigger over time, and I barely even noticed her.”

“You… What? But Mom’s the most beautiful, awesome Kunoichi in the world! How dare you not notice her, you bastard!”

The Seventh waved his hand, trying to ease him. “The first time I really saw your mom for who she was, was during that battle. Pein had me pinned to the ground with nails, and his chakra was digging into me, and I was powerless. He was about to kill me, but then your mom rushed in and saved my ass.”

“She did?!” Boruto was in awe. He’d heard tales about how powerful his mother was back when she was an active shinobi. “That’s so cool! Mom’s the best, right?”

“Yeah, she is. You wanna know what your mom said to me when she rescued me?”

“What, what?!” Boruto’s eyes were shining.

“I’ll never forget her words, kid. I told her to get out, that it was too dangerous, and your mom said to me that she was just being selfish, and that she was there because she wanted to be. She said that she’d always been chasing me, and that she just wanted to walk by my side. She said I changed her, that my smile saved her.”

Boruto scoffed. “Pff… Your smile isn’t worth a rat’s ass.”

“To Hinata, it was. I don’t know if you know this, but she had a pretty bad inferiority complex when we were kids. Since then, she’s always told me that my _unwavering faith in myself_ ,” Air quotes, “Was what drove her to try her best every day.”

“Geez, that’s cheesy. So did you guys kiss, or what?”

“I’m not done yet, kiddo.” The Seventh’s eyes darkened as he looked down once more. “Pein was too powerful for her. I didn’t get a chance to say jack shit before he grabbed her and slammed her into the ground.”

“What?” Boruto asked, confused.

“You kicked her where she was impaled with a giant nail by Pein.”

“I… What?”

“When I say she saved my ass, I mean that she was the reason I broke out of Pein’s binds. Because the Kyuubi immediately took over, with more power than he ever had before. I really thought she was dead, Boruto. This girl, who I’d never noticed, had confessed her true feelings to me for the first time, and then was immediately murdered right in front of me.

“She wasn’t dead, though. She was alive, and conscious. I was just too wrapped up in the moment to notice that she was still breathing. 

“Your mother blames herself for him taking over. She used to have nightmares about the Kyuubi killing me once and for all. Ceaseless ones. She used to say she’s half the reason the village was destroyed so completely. You get it now, Boruto?”

“I… No?”

“That kick made her think she was back there. It tricked her mind. She thought she was sixteen years old, bleeding out, and unable to move as I turned into the most fearsome monster Konohagakure had ever seen. When she called out to me, she was probably remembering how I looked when I transformed into the Kyuubi.”

Boruto glanced downward at his hands.

“I only came back alive because of a failsafe in the Sealing Jutsu that bound me and the Kyuubi together. Your mom, quite literally, almost killed me. She hates herself for that.”

The young boy frowned. “I… Think I get it. I triggered an instinctive response when I kicked her, right?”

“You got it, kiddo. Don’t blame yourself. I’ve accidentally set her off a few times. She’ll be back to normal in the morning.”

Boruto nodded. “If you swear.”

His dad held out his pinkie. “Cross my heart.”


End file.
